Physical property model for advanced oxide fuels

Kato, Masato   ; McClellan, K.*

A joint study on advanced oxide fuels is being carried out under the Civil Nuclear Energy Working Group (CNWG) bilateral collaboration between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. The main goal of this study is to support development and validation of a science-based fuel analysis code for minor actinide (MA) bearing MOX fuel. In analysis and evaluation of fuel performance, it is essential to understand the physical properties of the advanced oxide fuels. Therefore, we are investigating physical properties of (U,Pu)O, (U,Ce,)O, PuO, CeO and other related compounds to prepare a physical property database and to construct an integrated mechanistic physical property model. In this paper, we describe the derivation of a model to represent heat capacity and thermal conductivity of (U,Pu)O that is based on the experimental database.